This invention relates to devices which block doors from closing and relates to the use of these devices by emergency workers in emergencies.
Emergency workers, such as fire fighters, need to block doors in an open position as they move into an emergency situation. Wedges which can be placed under doors have to be very large to accommodate the range of spaces between the floor and door bottoms which would normally be encountered. Wedges lodged in the space where the door is hinged are unreliable. When the door is bumped by a fire hose the wedge will be dislodged and the door will swing closed over the hose, creating a very dangerous situation. Fire fighters often are forced to give up valuable equipment--such as their ax, or oxygen tanks--to block doors open.
The art has been progressed by several proposals. A training video for fire fighters shows the use of a "homemade" piece of angle iron with a substantial hook attached to its vertex. The device is used by placing the hook over a door hinge leaf just next to the hinge barrel. The size of the hook limits the range of doors which this device will block. The bulk of this homemade device limits the number of these devices which emergency workers can carry easily. The edges will tear the pockets in which emergency will carry this device. And, the exposed hook will cause time wasting tangles when several of these homemade door blocks are carried together.
The device proposed by Deininger in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,688 is intended to fit over the top of a door hinge barrel. Since there is a wide range of diameters of door hinge barrels, if this device is large enough to fit over the largest diameter door hinge barrel which an emergency worker is likely to encounter, then the device will poorly fit the smallest diameter door hinge barrel which an emergency worker is likely to encounter and will be dislodged easily from the small barrel. Also, this device will have to be made of heavy material in order to be reliable.
The device proposed by Barnes in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,471 provides for a solid block to be hung over a door hinge barrel, and the device proposed by Neighbors in U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,681 provides for a more flexible space frame to be hung over a door hinge barrel. Again, for both these devices the range of diameters of door hinge barrels which will normally be encountered will jeopardize the reliability. These, and all the other prior, devices would be difficult to carry because of their shape. Emergency workers are likely to carry this type of device in a jacket or pants pocket where all of these prior devices would cause damage and get entangled.
Thus, there are opportunities to progress the art further by devising a door block which will be more reliable, in that it can be used to block a wider range of doors, and by devising a door block which can be carried more easily by emergency workers and can be used more easily in emergencies.